Arts and Culture

It's year two of the ATX Television Festival, which is happening in Austin this weekend with panel discussions, premiere screenings and even some free public events. We spoke with one of the co-founders, who told us she started the festival because there was no venue to unite TV fans with the actors and producers behind their favorite programs. 

The food trailer park on South Congress just closed down, and a lot of people were upset about it. But there is still a big food-truck scene here in Austin with a wide range of cuisines; you just have to know where to look.

A 22,000-square-foot aquarium will come to North Austin near U.S. 183 and Anderson Mill Road, in what was once a Lack's Furniture store. It is expected to open later this year, in November.

I'm sitting in my neighborhood bakery, the Upper Crust in Austin, Texas, trying to read my newspaper and enjoy an oatmeal muffin, but I can't stop staring at the photographs on the wall. A native man, his face painted weirdly, holds a great scowling iguana on his head; a boy lies on palm fronds with a colony of giant silk moth caterpillars ornamenting his neck; small brown hands hold a luminous blue morpho butterfly up to the camera. Put down your Danish rolls, people! How can anyone finish breakfast under the spell of these bizarre tropical photos? Who is this photographer anyway?

Mexican culture is celebrated all over Austin, but none of it perhaps quite as exuberantly as tequila. To learn more about the popular spirit, we talked to Austin food writer Lucinda Hutson, whose new book ¡Viva Tequila! hit book stores this month. 

Just in time for your summer vacation, NPR is opening its doors to the public for daily tours of our new Washington, D.C. headquarters. Each weekday at 11 a.m., a one-hour, free guided tour will take you through the NPR Newsroom and studios, and tell you about our history, mission and give you a glimpse of daily life here.

Earlier this year, the NPR headquarters moved a few blocks to the Washington, D.C., neighborhood of NoMa (or north of Massachusetts Ave). We've now settled in and are ready for visitors. Public tours will start on Monday, June 3.

There has been a cooking competition going on right under our noses in Austin, with some of the city’s best line cooks and sous-chefs.

We spoke with CultureMap food editor Jessica Dupuy about the culinary elimination event Citywide 86’d.